Long-term monitoring of Azorean forest spiders

The data we present are part of the long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores) that aims to understand the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers on Azorean native forests. Passive flight interception SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise trap) were used to sample forest plots in both islands, with one trap being setup at each plot. A total of twenty 50m x 50m plots were sampled in two of the islands from the archipelago, 13 in Terceira and 7 in Pico. This publication contributes not only to a better knowledge of the arachnofauna present in native forests of Terceira and Pico, but also contributes to understand the patterns of abundance and diversity both seasonally and between years.

Identification

Alternate Identifier: 10.15468/x2aup9

Alternate Identifier: 13745243-620e-4c04-9178-773e4bfc2072

Alternate Identifier: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=lter_slam_azores_spiders

Publication Date: 2021-06-08

Title: Long-term monitoring of Azorean forest spiders

Abstract: The data we present are part of the long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores) that aims to understand the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers on Azorean native forests. Passive flight interception SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise trap) were used to sample forest plots in both islands, with one trap being setup at each plot. A total of twenty 50m x 50m plots were sampled in two of the islands from the archipelago, 13 in Terceira and 7 in Pico. This publication contributes not only to a better knowledge of the arachnofauna present in native forests of Terceira and Pico, but also contributes to understand the patterns of abundance and diversity both seasonally and between years.

purpose: This publication contributes not only to a better knowledge of the arachnofauna present in native forests of Terceira and Pico, but also contributes to understand the patterns of abundance and diversity both seasonally and between years.

Dataset Language: ENGLISH

Dataset Creator: Universidade dos Açores; ce3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental - Paulo Borges (Aggregate Professor )

Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze , Angra Do Heroismo , Azores , 9700-042 , PORTUGAL
http://gba.uac.pt/member/paulo-a-v-borges

Dataset Creator: Universidade dos Açores; ce3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental - Ricardo Costa (Student )

Rua Capitão João D`Ávila, São Pedro , Angra Do Heroismo , Azores , 9700-124 , PORTUGAL

Metadata Provider: Universidade dos Açores; ce3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental - Paulo Borges (Aggregate Professor )

Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze , Angra Do Heroismo , Azores , 9700-042 , PORTUGAL
http://gba.uac.pt/member/paulo-a-v-borges

Metadata Provider: Universidade dos Açores; ce3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental - Ricardo Costa (Student )

Rua Capitão João D`Ávila, São Pedro , Angra Do Heroismo , Azores , 9700-124 , PORTUGAL

Associated Party: USER
Universidade dos Açores; ce3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental - Paulo Borges (Aggregate Professor )

Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze , Angra Do Heroismo , Azores , 9700-042 , PORTUGAL

Dataset Contact: Universidade dos Açores; ce3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental - Paulo Borges (Aggregate Professor )

Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze , Angra Do Heroismo , Azores , 9700-042 , PORTUGAL
http://gba.uac.pt/member/paulo-a-v-borges

Keywords (GBIF Dataset Type Vocabulary: http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/dataset_type_2015-07-10.xml )

Pico
Sampling event
Macaronesia
Laurissilva forest
Long-term sampling
Arthropoda
Terceira
Araneae
Azores

Geographic Coverage

Geographic Description: Pico and Terceira islands in Azorean archipelago (Portugal)

Bounding Box

West Bounding Coordinate: -28.592

East Bounding Coordinate: -26.993

North Bounding Coordinate: 38.835

South Bounding Coordinate: 38.372

Temporal Coverage

Range of Dates

Begin Date

2012-06-27

End Date

2020-01-13

License Information

Intellectual Rights

This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC-BY-NC) 4.0 License

Projects

• ProjectSLAM_Araneae

Title: SLAM - Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores

Personnel

Individual Name

Given Name: Paulo

Surname: Borges

User ID: 0000-0002-8448-7623

Role: CONTENT_PROVIDER

Personnel

Individual Name

Given Name: Ricardo

Surname: Costa

Role: AUTHOR

Abstract: The data we present are part of the long-term project SLAM (Long Term Ecological Study of the Impacts of Climate Change in the natural forest of Azores) that aims to understand the impact of biodiversity erosion drivers on Azorean native forests. Passive flight interception SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise trap) were used to sample forest plots in both islands, with one trap being setup at each plot. A total of twenty 50m x 50m plots were sampled in two of the islands from the archipelago, 13 in Terceira and 7 in Pico. This publication contributes not only to a better knowledge of the arachnofauna present in native forests of Terceira and Pico, but also contributes to understand the patterns of abundance and diversity both seasonally and between years

Funding: A large number of students financed by the EU Programs ERASMUS and EURODYSSÉE sorted the samples prior to species assignment by one of us (PB), and we are grateful to all of them: Adal Humberto Díaz Raya, Alejandra Ros-Prieto, David Rodilla Rivas, Daniel Ehrhart, Juan Ignacio Pitarch Peréz, Juan Manuel Taboada Alvarez, Helena Marugán Páramo, Laura Cáceres Sabater, Laura Gallardo, Lucas Lamelas-López, Marija Tomašić, Óscar García Contreras, Percy de Laminne de Bex, Ruben Murillo Garcia, Rui Carvalho, Rui Nunes, Sergio Fernandez, Sophie Wallon, and William Razey. This manuscript was also partly financed by Portuguese FCT-NETBIOME –ISLANDBIODIV grant 0003/2011 (between 2012 and 2015), Portuguese National Funds, through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, within the project UID/BIA/00329/2013-2020, the project from Direcção Regional do Ambiente - PRIBES (LIFE17 IPE/PT/000010) (2019), Direcção Regional do Ambiente – LIFE-BETTLES (LIFE18 NAT_PT_000864) (2020) and AZORESBIOPORTAL –PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072) (2019). The Natural Park of Terceira and Pico (Azores) provided the necessary authorization for sampling

Study Area Description

Descriptor

Terceira (area: 400.6 km²; elevation: 1021 m a.s.l.) and Pico (area: 445 km²; elevation: 2350 m a.s.l) Islands are two islands in the central group of the Azores archipelago, located in the North Atlantic, roughly at 38°43'21''N 27°13'14''W and 38°27'30''N 28°19'22''W respectively. The climate is temperate oceanic, with regular and abundant rainfall, high levels of relative humidity and persistent winds, mainly during the winter and autumn seasons

Design Description

Description: Passive flight interception SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise trap) were used to sample the plots in both islands, with one trap being setup at each plot, each one being 110 x 110 x 110 cm. In this type of trap the trapped arthropods crawl up the mesh and then fall inside the sampling recipient (Borges et al, 2017). Each one is filled with propylene glycol (pure 1,2-PROPANODIOL) to kill the captured arthropods and conserve the sample between collections, enabling also the preservation of DNA for future genetic analysis. Although this protocol was developed to sample flying arthropods, by working as an extension of the tree, non-flying species such as spiders can also crawl into the trap (Borges et al, 2017), enhancing the range of groups that can be sampled by this technique. Because of this, previous studies have used these traps to analyse diversity and abundance changes in the arthropod communities in Azores pristine forest sites (Matthews et al, 2019, Borges et al, 2020). The traps samples were collected every 3 months. A monthly collection was also performed in Terra-Brava T18 on Terceira between January 2014 and June 2016

Methods

• Method

Method Step

Description: The data has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardised format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table (events) contains 495 records and one data table extension also exists (occurrence), with 3025 records. The extension supplies extra information about the core record

Sampling

Study Extent

A total of twenty 50m x 50m plots were sampled in two of the islands from the archipelago, 13 in Terceira and 7 in Pico. The areas where these plots were set constitute some of the most well-preserved wet forests in these islands, having small human disturbance (Borges et al, 2017). In Terceira the plots are dominated by endemic vegetation such as Juniperus brevifolia, Erica azorica, Laurus azorica and Ilex perado subsp. azorica (see Borges et al, 2017 for more details). In Pico, the plots at lower elevation (0-400 m a.s.l.) are dominated by Erica azorica and Morella faya, but with some presence of Pittosporum undulatum. At higher elevations (600-1000 m a.s.l.) the dominant vegetation is composed by Laurus Azorica, Juniperus brevifolia and Ilex perado zorica.

Sampling Description: Passive flight interception SLAM traps (Sea, Land and Air Malaise trap) were used to sample the plots in both islands, with one trap being setup at each plot, each one being 110 x 110 x 110 cm. In this type of trap the trapped arthropods crawl up the mesh and then fall inside the sampling recipient (Borges et al, 2017). Each one is filled with propylene glycol (pure 1,2-PROPANODIOL) to kill the captured arthropods and conserve the sample between collections, enabling also the preservation of DNA for future genetic analysis. Although this protocol was developed to sample flying arthropods, by working as an extension of the tree, non-flying species such as spiders can also crawl into the trap (Borges et al, 2017), enhancing the range of groups that can be sampled by this technique. Because of this, previous studies have used these traps to analyse diversity and abundance changes in the arthropod communities in Azores pristine forest sites (Matthews et al, 2019, Borges et al, 2020). The traps samples were collected every 3 months between September 2013 and December 2018 in Pico, and between June 2012 and January 2020 in Terceira. A monthly collection was also performed in Terra-Brava T18 on Terceira, which happened between January 2014 and June 2016.

qualityControl

Description: All sorted speciments were identified by a taxonomical expert.

Not available

Default

Identification

Geographic Coverage

Bounding Box

Temporal Coverage

Range of Dates

License Information

Projects

Projects

• ProjectSLAM_Araneae

Personnel

Individual Name

Personnel

Individual Name

Study Area Description

Design Description

Methods

Methods

• Method

Method Step

Sampling

qualityControl